The Coronado Speed Festival dodged most of the incoming rounds of military budget cuts and will be back loud and proud for its 16th running next weekend, Sept. 21 and 22, on the runways of Naval Air Station North Island, the military side of Coronado.

The weekend of vintage racing, car shows and military displays is the showcase event of Fleet Week, the annual tribute to all branches of the military in San Diego. As always, the event is a fundraiser for the Navy’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation Fund for family support. Active-duty military are admitted free.

The format and footprint of the festival will be about the same as for recent years. Admission is the same as the last five years and parking is still free. The racing is again staged by Historic Motor Sports Association and the track will have the same 1.7-mile layout on runways and taxiways.

The Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup pro racing series is back and among the pilots of the 200-hp Miatas will be Elliott Skeer. He’s now all of 18 years old and on his way to a career of racing.

Grand Marshal activities will be shared by a racing icon and a military group.

Tony “A2Z” Adamowicz is a veteran of the U.S. Army and warrior on the race track. He won the 1968 Trans-Am Championship in a Porsche 911 and won the 1969 Formula 5000 championship in his Gurney Eagle F5000. Adamowicz raced the open-wheel car at the speed fest in 2011 and welcomed fans at his garage space.

The group Grand Marshall will be led by San Diego-area Vietnam prisoners of war. The tribute recognizes for the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, on March 29, 1973. Yesterday was national POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Credit for saving the speed festival this year goes to two commanders, said Jim Philion, who has been a founding father for the speed festival.

Vice Admiral David Buss, commander of Naval Air Forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and Captain Gary Mayes, Commanding Officer of NAS North Island, went all the way to the Secretary of Defense to get this event approved, Philion said.

“This is the only remaining Fleet Week celebration being held in the U.S. and the only open house of a Navy base in the western U.S,” he said. “The commanders got this event approved because the open house has been so successful in the community and the speed festival has been a premier event of Fleet Week.”

Philion and his wife, Beth, will race their historic stock cars (NASCARs) in Group 8 and Beth also will race her Triumph Spitfire in Group 4.

The most noticeable adjustment in the vintage racing is in the historic Trans Am racers in Group 9, to close the day. This year will feature the 2.5-liter cars, not the thunderous 5.0-liter V-8s. Many of those are off at another vintage race, but the 2.5-liter group will be a packed dogfight of BMW 2002s, Datsuns, Alfa Romeos, Minis, Fiats, even Volvo.